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AV has been uncompetitive for the past couple of years. Only plan that was worth it was the $10 plan and even now that plan isn't competitive. No CS advantage now. Seems like they have Carlos Slim level CS.

Are the lifeline customers taking too much of the CSRs time? Or what'ya think?

Yes. The customers have trouble with BYOD. Lots of questions since the data bucket is small and can be used up quickly watching videos. The provider reporting requirements can be cumbersome for a new life line company even if the reports are not reviewed. Staff for federal audits.

I have developed reporting for a managed care company for a state Medicaid contract. The reports are developed from draft rules until or if a final set of rules published.

Spoke with an AV exec...heres some news...

My business partner called them...nearly 40 minute wait times...Spoke with their VP in charge of dealer program.Suspicions of AV cs being overwhelmed by Lifeline sude confirmed...they outsource new LL activations to a different cs pool but apparently follow ups go to regular cs...that, the fact they are aggressively pursuing Lifeline dollars in the California market and are the number two lifeline provider in that state after giant Safelink/Tracfone reveals the story. A disproportionate amount of calls are going to regular cs It also doesnt help new phone system inferior to old one. The Veep said that this was helping Av have income for long term growth and that the ultimate goal was to rechannel lifeline money to the regular side. We told him bluntly that neither customers or dealers were happy with the present loss of quality and he acknowledged that they were not either and their intention was to get back to yhe level of cs quality they were known for. Thats encouraging but we also told him directly...better sooner then later...we named Rok and Red Pocket as being way more competitive in plans on Att side now. Dealers were expecting a plan improvement last month but it never happened. Air Voice has a long proud and ggod legacy but right now they are not what they were and until the improvements happen to pass customers and dealers will probably try other options...

Lifeline is the Federal government program that provides payment for eligible low-income persons phone service. For cell service, the provider, like AV, gets $9.25 a month to provide a minimum 500 minutes and 500 MB of mobile data. I couldn't find what the text allowance is. It's probably 500.

Some (few) states provide additional subsidies. California is particularly generous with their taxpayers money. Some of the Ca lifeline providers take what Ca pays them and offer unlimited talk and text. Oklahoma is another generous Lifeline state. I leave it as an exercise for the the reader to figure out why. California is obvious. They are socialists.

Just to throw another wrench. Back in March an employee if AV posted on Facebook that AV wasn't even paying their people. He even post documentation in form of pictures. Said that the state labor board had been involved before they paid. Been going down hill for a while already.

I called last Saturday to get help with MMS not working. I was on hold for 20 minutes maybe and then spent almost 30 minutes on the phone with CS rep resetting my phone. I have been waiting longer to get a CS rep lately.

Lifeline is the Federal government program that provides payment for eligible low-income persons phone service. For cell service, the provider, like AV, gets $9.25 a month to provide a minimum 500 minutes and 500 MB of mobile data. I couldn't find what the text allowance is. It's probably 500.

Some (few) states provide additional subsidies. California is particularly generous with their taxpayers money. Some of the Ca lifeline providers take what Ca pays them and offer unlimited talk and text. Oklahoma is another generous Lifeline state. I leave it as an exercise for the the reader to figure out why. California is obvious. They are socialists.

Thank you for the information. I wasn't aware of this.
I am getting a feeling, you don't like this idea. I don't want to offer anyone a free lunch at the same time if my tax dollars are paid to take care of a fellow citizen for a short period until they get their stuff together, I am fine with that.

Thank you for the information. I wasn't aware of this.
I am getting a feeling, you don't like this idea. I don't want to offer anyone a free lunch at the same time if my tax dollars are paid to take care of a fellow citizen for a short period until they get their stuff together, I am fine with that.

I am ok with the concept of providing some phone service to the needy. The concept is that not having phone service makes it harder to get and keep a job. My problem is with the level of fraud about being needy. When the govt. audited the program a few years ago they could not verify that 40% of the Lifeline recipients were eligible.

A lot of that was Lifeline providers playing fast and loose with verifying eligibility. Tracfone Lifeline provider Safelink got fined multi-million dollars over that.

On topic: This is about Airvoice customer support suffering because they are ramping up as a Lifeline provider.

Yeah. I hadn't heard of any of this until I stumbled upon this thread. I've been using (and am still using) Airvoice for years. I also have extra pins from CallingMart. I wonder if CallingMart will give refunds if Airvoice goes under. :-/

I don't think they are going under but they have sustained a lot of damage to their once great cs ratings. All the attention being turned to Lifeline/Feelsafe program , especially out in heavily populated California is draining the focus away from their core prepaid to putting out Lifeline fires. They do not have separate CS for Lifeline/Feelsafe, and regular Air Voice . Air Voice is currently one of the most active Lifeline carriers in California (probably along with Tracfone/Safelink). Considering they have zero push on their prepaid core plans since July 2015 and cs quality is going down, I'd say they are putting all their effort into getting as much of that subsidized govt money as much as possible. With many if not most Lifeline carriers dropping dead and each state with different subsidies, they are making bank on Cali and maybe one or two other states. The cost of that is that their other parts suffer... It should come back up but they really should hire more people.

I don't think they are going under but they have sustained a lot of damage to their once great cs ratings. All the attention being turned to Lifeline/Feelsafe program , especially out in heavily populated California is draining the focus away from their core prepaid to putting out Lifeline fires. They do not have separate CS for Lifeline/Feelsafe, and regular Air Voice . Air Voice is currently one of the most active Lifeline carriers in California (probably along with Tracfone/Safelink). Considering they have zero push on their prepaid core plans since July 2015 and cs quality is going down, I'd say they are putting all their effort into getting as much of that subsidized govt money as much as possible. With many if not most Lifeline carriers dropping dead and each state with different subsidies, they are making bank on Cali and maybe one or two other states. The cost of that is that their other parts suffer... It should come back up but they really should hire more people.

Thanks for the info, fonezfonz. I appreciate it. I do hope that Airvoice sticks around because it's the perfect setup for me and my wife. Take care.